"Tammy"

        

So mid-morning today I had to run a couple errands for work.  First to Rite-Aid to print some pictures for a bulletin board and then to Starbucks to pick up some coffee for a meeting that’s going on.  When I came out of Rite-Aid I noticed an older white couple just sitting in their big beat-up white truck (which was parked next to my car) talking away, about what I’m not sure.  I didn’t really think more on the matter until I got out of Starbucks and got into my car.  I had to be careful not to open my door too wide or else I would risk bumping their truck.  I was not able to hear what their conversation was about, but I peeked inside the truck before I went on my way.  I’m annoyed with myself because I have failed to remember the names that were embroidered onto their dashboard protector.  It was Ronnie and something stereotypically white trash sounding like “Tammy.” Nothing, in my book, says love like getting your name along with the name of your true love embroidered on the dashboard cover of your beat-up truck.  I also noted that from the rear-view mirror hung a blue glass dolphin decoration...

...and that the woman in the car was holding a Yorkshire Terrier in her lap. 

I couldn’t help but notice the look on his face that seemed to be asking for some kind of help or escape from his current life situation.  There wasn’t much I could do about it though…all I can hope for is the best for that small creature!  I got to thinking about this couple as I headed back to the office.  I thought that they were sitting unusually close together in that beat up truck.  I thought that maybe it wasn’t “Tammy” who was accompanying him in that truck.  I thought that maybe this lady (who I imagined to have fluorescent pink or blue Lee press on nails)...

...was Ronnie’s “on the side.”  Maybe Ronnie had bought this woman the dog as an “I love you (but what I’m not telling you is that while you give me some good lovin’, I’m never going to leave “Tammy” to be with you)” present.  I thought how torturous it must be for this woman to sit there holding the sad little dog with “Tammy” staring at her from the dashboard while she pleaded with Ronnie to run away with her and be her forever man.  I thought how he, as stupid a man as he probably was, would sweet talk his way out of the sticky situation he found himself in (whether it be a threat from this lover to take the news of this relationship to “Tammy” or a threat of this lover to end the relationship for good) and into her pants!  I wonder what they would think if they knew what developed in my mind over their sitting in the parking lot of Rite-Aid this morning.